How do I search for a whole word only, excluding partial matches?

Explanation

The \< and \> atoms create word boundaries in a search pattern, matching only complete words and not substrings within larger words.

How it works

• \< matches the start of a word
• \> matches the end of a word
• /\<the\> matches the but not there or other

Example

the theory of the other theme

Searching /\<the\> matches only the two standalone the words, not theory, other, or theme.

Tips

• * and # automatically add word boundaries
• Boundaries work in :substitute too: :%s/\<old\>/new/g
• \< matches at a transition from non-word to word character
• Word characters are letters, digits, and underscores